You can't sacrifice what you don't have

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Today, I have read about an estate agent suggesting that anyone could easily afford a deposit for a house by simply sacrificing luxuries. I'm not going to argue that as a possibility. Of course, if you, as this estate agent assumes, go on lots of holidays, buy lunches every day, have regular takeaways, expensive nights out, etc. then, yes, it wouldn't be a hardship to sacrifice some of those things. The thing is this: firstly, it's quite rude to assume that people who can't afford something haven't already thought of saving or cutting back. The second thing is assuming everyone has luxuries in the first place. It's extremely patronising for someone who can clearly afford luxuries to tell people who can barely make ends meet that they should cut back on luxuries that they most likely don't have because they can't afford. This estate agent estimated that it would take 5 years to save £33000. Without even taking into account whether that's enough of a deposit or if you'd be able to get a mortgage anyway, that would mean saving half the income or more for a lot of people. That's simply not feasible for the average person, especially when paying high rents. Telling someone who's not sure if they'll be able to pay all their bills each month that all they need to do is give up holidays and takeaways, that's so patronising. As is assuming that the only reason people are not financially better off is because they're wasteful. Poorer people are often really good at budgeting because they have to be! So, yes, if you have a good job, if you are frivolous, if you can sacrifice luxuries, then of course you could easily save money by not doing those things. But so many people simply don't have the luxury of luxury. I don't consider myself poor but I certainly struggle at times. There are things I could cut out but it won't be anywhere near enough to save a deposit for a house in 10 years, let alone 5. So, I'll keep my gym membership for now. I'll have that one guaranteed 'luxury' instead of trying to save for something that won't be within my reach before I'm 50, if ever. I've been to budgeting workshops where the advice seemed to be from people who assumed that everyone on a low income had no common sense. There was advice like 'you don't need to buy new make-up all the time' and 'don't buy a new outfit for evwry occasion'. This was aimed at people who mostly didn't own make-up and were wearing 10+ year old clothes because buying new stuff for themselves wasn't a priority in the first place! When I've been struggling before, I've had people tell me to just work harder, or I should have done better at school, or to simply save a little. So then I tell them about my academic credentials and how much I already do. They tend nit to come back with any response! So, do you find such things patronising? Have you been in a situation where someone has told you (how) to do something when you've already done it or been offered advice from someone who obviously lives in a different world?